1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk drive, and more particularly, to a tray mechanism for a disk drive in which a tray is loaded onto or unloaded from a main frame by use of a driving force of a spindle motor, and a disk drive using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a top perspective view depicting a construction of a conventional disk drive.
Referring to FIG. 1, the disk drive includes a main frame 10, a tray 20 loadable onto and unloadable from the main frame 10, with a disk (not shown) being seated thereon, and a base frame 30 having a turntable 31 on which a disk is seatable. The base frame 20 is movably installed to the main frame 10.
The tray 20 is provided at a bottom surface thereof with a rack gear 21 along a moving direction of the tray toward the main frame 10, and a guide 22 positioned adjacent to the rack gear 21. The guide 22 has a specified length and is bent at a specified angle.
In order to load/unload the tray 20, the main frame 10 includes a drive motor 11, an intermediate gear 12 connected to the drive motor 11 through a belt 13 for receiving the driving force, and a pinion gear 14 meshed with the intermediate gear 12 and the rack gear 21.
On the main frame 10 a slide cap 40 is mounted to linearly reciprocate in a direction perpendicular to a loading/unloading direction of the tray 20. A cam gear 42, which meshes with the pinion gear 14, is formed on an end of the slide cam 40, and a protrusion 41, which engages the guide 22, is formed in the slide cam 40.
The slide cam 40 has a protrusion 41 so that it can be guided by engagement with the guide 22.
The base frame 30 is adapted to move up and down with respect to the main frame 10 by the slide cam 40.
A loading and unloading operation of the tray in the conventional disk drive configured as descried above will be described.
Firstly, the operation of loading the tray 20 on the main frame 10 will now be described.
When the tray 20 is unloaded from the main frame 10, a driving force of the drive motor 11 is transferred to the tray 20 through the belt 13, the intermediate gear 12, the pinion gear 14, and the rack gear 21, to load the tray 20 on the main frame 10.
If the tray 20 is loaded on the main frame 10 to a certain degree, the protrusion 41 abuts against the guide 22 and is thus guided by the guide 22. The cam gear 42 is meshed with the pinion gear 14, and the slide cam 40 receives the driving force from the pinion gear 14 to slide.
While the slide cam 40 slides, the base frame 30 slowly moves to an upper portion of the main frame 10. When loading of the tray 20 on the main frame 10 is completed, the base frame 30 is completely moved to the upper portion of the main frame 10, such that the disk (not shown) seated on the tray 20 is mounted and clamped on the turntable 31. A spindle motor (not shown) coaxially installed to the turntable 31 rotates to turn the disk (not shown), and an optical pickup unit (not shown) reciprocates in the radial direction of the disk to write the data on the disk or read the data from the disk.
The operation of unloading the tray 20 from the main frame 10 is to the same as the loading operation, but in reverse.
In the conventional disk drive of FIG. 1, the operation of loading/unloading the tray on or from the main frame is achieved by the drive motor, while the operation of turning the disk is achieved by the spindle motor provided separately.
Therefore, since the operations of the tray and the disk are independently achieved by separate motors, the manufacturing cost of the conventional disc drive is increased, and the main frame for installing each motor is complicated. Also, the entire weight of the construction is increased.